Post-crisis marketing

After 15 years of almost uninterrupted prosperity for both consumer as well as business, despite of the an occasional slowdown, people will adjust to the new reality. S&P 500 fell almost 50%, so did our shares, our trust, inflation was growing more rapidly than our income, the value of our real estate wasn’t a firm asset, and yet companies are trying to persuade these Post Recession Consumers to consume again.

“Understanding the Post Recession Consumers”

The HBR contribute an interesting article “Understanding the Post Recession Consumers”. Compared to previous post-recession attitudes they predict how consumers will react after this crisis. A few trends do strengthen the demand for Vendor Relationship Management or 'new marketing'.
The most dominant trend is set out in “demand for simplicity”, consumer are seeking uncomplicated, user-friendly products & services that simplify their lives. Say goodbye to all cross-selling tactics from a manufacture-point-of-view.

"Agile consumers"
A more advancing trend is “mercurial consumption”, Easy access to information and friction free purchasing is making consumers even more agile. The primary response of marketers will be, working even more aggressive remain doing what they did. This is given due to the fact that marketers still don’t adjust to the new needs of the consumer. Marketers want to capture ‘their’ clients, and put them on a golden chain and believe they are loyal. But now marketers have to deal with ‘agile’ consumers, no way to capture them, and no need to capture them.

 (low quality movie, but great content)
“Loyalty is in the heart, not in a program”
Just adjust to them, create tools & processes, to get them really involved. Give them the sincere feeling that you really care, that they really can influence. And give them reason to sustain this feeling, so act! Then you will build loyalty as loyalty is in the heart & mind and not in a loyalty-card filled with data through a CRM-system.